*Those chicken shits at Moody's saw fit to downgrade Japanese debt on Monday. How courageous. Of course Moody's still has USA debt rated "AAA" lest Obama's minions launch some counter attack and probe into the rating system Moody's was employing prior to 2008.

At two grand an oz. you may want to start thinking about selling your teeth. Get porcelain crowns instead or just continue to wait. I have great news.

Gold will not stop it's meteoric rise until the world figures out a solution other than to print worthless paper and call it money. If they can't rein in the fiat bubble, there won't be any popping the gold "bubble."

Thursday, August 18, 2011

In small towns, the cops know who the players are. It's not like the big city- we know how to find you and fast.

Many years ago, we had what had been- a very responsible social and civic leader completely leave the rails. He may have always been an alcoholic but when he found cocaine- he found addiction. He began stealing money, significant amounts, anywhere he could get it. Mostly from friends and family. A few of them reported the lies and swindles he concocted but virtually all of them did not want to prosecute him- or testify against him. That's how it is in a small town. It is intimate. So all of the victims in this case just wanted us- the police- to find enough evidence on our own and lock him up without getting them involved. I understood that. They called it, "doing our job."

It took a week or two before he forged one of those VISA checks that credit card companies used to send to prospective new credit card accounts. Remember those? He had found one in the trash at the post office. He had actually forged it at the bank- right in front of the teller. He was even on video. The teller had handed him 3000 dollars in cash. It looked like a slam dunk. Finally, we could lock this guy up and end this runaway train wreck.

The bank he had done this in? Bank of America. When I asked the manager for a statement from the teller she refused. When I asked the manager for the video tape she refused. She said she would call their legal department. She threw up every roadblock she could. She never cooperated, apologized, or offered an explanation. I very nearly threw her in jail for obstructing.

And you know what? That would have been the right thing to do, but I'll be damned if the Chief's wife didn't work in that bank. The Chief wouldn't let me drag her ass to jail- which she so richly deserved. He wouldn't even let me get a search warrant and go over her head. The avenue was closed. So it was that we had to let this domestic terrorist victimize a few more people before we could bring charges and finally lock this guy up.

Every time I see a Bank of America branch I think about those assholes. Funny how that is. I am watching that whole crooked mess slide into oblivion, B of A, Countrywide and that thief Mozilo, a penny stock with no assets, selling assets- laying off 3500 people. When Bank of America dies, and they velcro a new name over their doors, I am gonna smile just a bit.

The head of all law enforcement at the Federal level is the executive branch. The duty to enforce the law falls on the President. The Commander in Chief. What happens when he is clearly in bed with the criminals?

Many people don't understand that gold bankers leverage gold much like they leverage dollars. However, gold- unlike dollars- can't be counterfeited. There is no FED bailout plan for banks that are extremely over leveraged and can't deliver the physical goods. Therefore, when the true owner of 99 tons of gold wants physical delivery...it's deliver or default. The loss of the underlying commodity causes liquidity to dry up and all of those paper claims get settled in paper...or not at all. Now if just a few more big holders of gold demand their goods back...there is a saying for this...

Venezuela has about 300 tons on deposit around the world. A third of that, 99 tons, is stored with the Bank of England.

Post Script Update* Gold has soared nearly 100 dollars an ounce since this story broke last week.

He who panics first, panics best. Hugo "Chop Chop" Chavez may not be entirely crazy.

> President Barack Obama was in the Oval Office when his telephone rang.
> "Hello, President Obama," a heavily accented Norwegian voice said. "'Dis here is Sven, over here in Dulut, Minnesota .
>
> Ve don't like some a yer policies so I am callin' to tell ya that we are
> officially declaring war on ya!"
>
> "Well, Sven," Barack replied, "This is indeed important news! How big is your
> army?"
> "Right now," said Sven, after a moment's calculation, "there is myself, my
> cousin Knute, my next-door-neighbor Ole, and the whole pool team from the
> Rod."
> Barack paused, "I must tell you, Sven, that I have one million men in my army
> waiting to move on my command."
> "Wow," said Sven, "I'll haf ta call ya back!"
> Sure enough, the next day, Sven called again. "Mr. Obama, da war is still on!
> We have managed to acquire some infantry equipment!"
>
> "And what equipment would that be, Sven?" Barack asked.
> "Vell sir, ve got two combines, a bulldozer, and Sigurd's farm tractor."
> President Obama sighed. "I must tell you, Sven, that I have 16,000 tanks and
> 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also I've increased my army to one and a
> half million since we last spoke."
>
> "All right den," said Sven. "I'll be getting back to ya."
> Sure enough, Sven rang again the next day... "President Obama, da war is still
> on! We have managed to git ourselves airborne!
>
> We up an' modified Ole's ultra-light vit a couple'a shotguns in da cockpit,
> and four boys from the coffee shop haf joined us as vell!"
> Barack was silent for a minute then cleared his throat.
>
> "I must tell you, Sven, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter planes ..

> My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air missile
> sites.
>
> And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO MILLION!"
> "Two million you say?," said Sven, "l'll haf' to call you back."
> Sure enough, Sven called again the next day. "President Obama! I am sorry to
> have to tell you that we have had to call off this here war."
> "I'm sorry to hear that," said Barack.
>
> "Why the sudden change of heart?"
> Vell, sir," said Sven, "we've all sat ourselves down and had a long chat over
> a few beers, and come to realize that there's yust no vay ve can feed two
> million prisoners."

First and foremost our country is full of idiots. We have forgotten that people of substance are not here to entertain us. That intelligent people are not the ones who whisper in our ears what we want to hear- intelligent people tell us what we need to hear. And what we need to hear is the truth. It is time for the truth.

Intelligent people are not always glamorous or good looking. Look at Bachmann and Palin. It's like a fucking beauty contest. Look at the male contestants. Same thing. Look at Ron Paul. He's not going to win any beauty contests but I'll be damned if this country- which is chocked full of morons- doesn't toss substance for beauty every time. Dancing with the Stars. Survivor. Gasp, Obama.

I could go on and on. I could talk about voting records, Paul's is flawless- he stands on principles. I could talk about scandals- Paul doesn't have any. I could talk about achievements- Paul is a doctor with the most predictable behavior- and he is not some worthless attorney like Bachmann. Instead I am going to skip straight to the chase- the reason why Paul is unelectable.

Paul represents the GREATEST THREAT EVER to status quo politics. He is a libertarian. He knows the FED was designed to strip Americans of their wealth. He knows wars are a waste of life and money. He knows existing drug enforcement methods do not work. He knows welfare doesn't work. He knows we cannot hope to pay the trillions we owe with out a huge structural overhaul of this country. In short, Ron Paul is against every system of failure that the Republicans and Democrats have supported. Those two parties represent politics as usual- the status quo.

If you are a Republican- you only have one enemy camp that hates you. If you are a Libertarian and a very credible one like Paul- both the Republicans and Democrats hate you. And their loyal followers...are quick to point out that any third party candidate represents a wasted vote. This is the crap I have read on lib sites like HuffPo and conservative sites like AceofSpades. Are they correct? Unfortunately, yes. Like herd animals- people are in charge of their own self fulfilling destinies. As long as they believe something is true- it is. They run over cliffs still believing they are right. That's been the history of history. Ross Perot as a Presidential candidate represented a complete departure from the status quo and we might have missed an excellent opportunity- to rescue our country back then. We are going to miss that same opportunity here.

That's why sadly, I think Paul is unelectable. The herd is simply too stupid to understand that they are being manipulated by two status quo herding outfits. Both outfits are taking us to the cliffs from different directions. They rely on our collective stupidity, a known and predictable quantity, and drive us over the cliffs to our deaths. One day as the cliffs approach...wouldn't it be nice to see the herd stop, turn around, and run the other way- trampling both herding outfits to death in the process?

The media simply carries the water for the status quo. Giving free coverage to a third party invader- is not in their interests. That's why Paul gets ignored and marginalized. The status quo are telling you- they don't want him in very subtle ways. He's not one of us. And if you support him, you will be isolated from the rest of the herd. You will be an outsider.

I got tired of arguing these things with left and right herd members. It's like trying to teach pigs to sing. They just don't get it. If by some miracle, Ron Paul or perhaps even Gary Johnson, got the Republican nomination- this country would stand a chance. Everyone else, looks status quo to me.

Monday, August 15, 2011

I'm down in Santa Barbara this week helping a young man find a place to live. I love Santa Barbara except for the fact that it is mired in California. I love the weather, the beach, the hills surrounding the town. I also love the whack jobs that inhabit Santa Barbara and wander from the beach up State St. Some of the looniest bastards on the planet.

I have seen an albino antelope. I have seen a dwarf playing a tuba. I thought I had seen everything until this. I spotted the last conservative in California. He was driving a pickup truck. This is what his bumper sticker said. "A taxpayer voting for Obama is like a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." Before I could catch a glimpse of him- he was gone. Like the yeti.

Now, I've lived in a few places that I was intent on vacating. Sometimes that meant the place was going to be shown before my departure. Generally, I try to clean up the place, maybe patch the holes in the wall with some toothpaste. Give proper notice in an attempt to liberate my deposit. I like to think I'm a good tenant. So today, while we were waiting for the property manager to show up at one home, some completely stoned kid with his "hat on lock" showed up and began wandering around. He walked around the back of the home and declared that he wanted this place. When I asked why he said, "check this out dude." I followed him to the backyard and snapped this photo which I cannot rotate because I am a moron. It is four fully mature pot plants.

When we went inside the house, the residents had about fifty buds laying out on the counter top drying. Call me old fashioned, but if I knew they were going to show the house which these morons did- I would probably put my pot away and not risk some stoner kid with his hat on sideways grabbing a few buds on the way out. Or some cop's kid mentioning this to his dad. Needless to say, we opted out of this place. I thought about snapping a photo of the buds on the counter but it would probably have been upside down and I didn't want to have to apologize twice for my lack of skill in rotating photos.

Soon we were down on State Street at the busiest place in all cities- the Apple store. Just before we walked in, I spotted a kid with dreads holding a sign. "Tomorrow is my birthday. I need money for pot and booze." I briefly thought about giving him the address of the house we were just at. That's how my mind works. I didn't give him the address because I think he was too stoned to take advantage of the tip.

Something that annoys the living shit out of me is the way ultra aggressive drivers behave upon approaching the exit lanes out of Santa Barbara and onto northbound 101. The locals pull this every time I am here. Traffic backs up in the number two lane (curb lane) for blocks waiting to turn right and merge onto the highway as signage directs. Some smart ass comes blasting down the number one lane which is always free of traffic. As they get close to the ramp, if they can find one centimeter of room between your nose and the car in front of you as you are stopped in traffic- they will just jam their car in front of you. Tonight some smart ass did this to us. Observing all of this was a Santa Barbara motorcycle cop. Justice. It's times like those when I actually miss being a cop....

Ok. That's enough for tonight. I am gonna read the blogroll and see if there are any news stories worthy of chiming in on...in the meantime...if you know a Santa Barbara cop...give em a smooch for me.

Now that the FED's member banks can now own and trade equities thanks to the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act in 1999- the stock market is now behaving just as irrationally as everything else.

Today I tried to find the Empire State Manufacturing Index on CNN Money. They didn't even have a headline on it. Why? Well because it was a huge miss at -7.72.

And the market is up 150 points. No other news.

Other than retirement funds, captured 401ks (thanks to the 30% IRS penalty), and banks- who would buy American equities? Answer- nobody. Well unless of course, you think those 30 million jobs are coming back or that the U.S. is on the verge of another industrial boom...and that somehow that 15 trillion debt we owe is going to get paid off with someone else's money.

In the 35 years I have followed and studied markets- I have never seen anything like this. We have a Frankenstein Government that has given birth to a Frankenstein Stock Market. I feel like I am living in some alternate "matrix" universe where bad news is ignored and good news is trumpeted loudly.

Interestingly enough, from the repeal of Glass Steagall to now- some 12 years later, the market is lower. It appears to have peaked. Just like Japan did in 1989.

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi. I have been to Jackson, Ms. and I do not remember it being as lovely as this movie portrays it. In fact, I thought Jackson was downright nasty when I was there in 2005. At any rate, this is a movie about black maids, or "The Help", and the white families that they worked for. It is set in the 50's and 60's. Perhaps Jackson was prettier then.

The movie and characters are well developed. There is some drama, racism, history, and humor. This movie is excellent. Anytime the people in the theater start clapping at the end of a movie- that is a pretty good indication that they liked the movie.

The best part about this film was the courage it took for the people involved to tell their stories. Telling the truth is often courageous and not without repercussions. Telling the truth tends to piss people off- particularly those people who have acted improperly. They don't want people to know the truth.

This movie has a wide zone of appeal. It's a hard movie not to like. I think you'll like it. It was rejected by 60 agents which just goes to show you....how well one group thinks for the rest of us. From wiki:

The novel is Stockett's first. It took her five years to complete the book, which was rejected by 60 literary agents before agent Susan Ramer agreed to represent Stockett.[4][5]The Help has since been published in 35 countries and three languages.[6] As of August 2011, it has sold five million copies and has spent more than a 100 weeks on the The New York Times Best Seller list.[7][8]